Dutchess County Legislator Tyner launches bid for state Senate seat

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner has emerged as an early challenger to state Sen. Sue Serino.

Tyner, a Democrat, first announced his plan to run for the 41st Senate District seat in a Facebook post on Dec. 3.

If nominated by the Democratic Party, Tyner will be making his third bid for a Senate seat. He ran unsuccessfully against then-Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, in 1996 and in 1998.

In an interview Thursday, Tyner invoked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, saying that like four-term president from Hyde Park, he would be a champion for the working class.

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“We need a living wage,” he said. “We need a jobs program. We need our tax system to go back to the way it was. We need to go back to a time when these New York City hedge fund billionaires didn’t dominate politics.

“We need a new deal,” he said.

A town of Clinton resident, Tyner, 53, was elected last month to an eighth two-year term in the Dutchess County Legislature. His new term isn’t up until the end of 2019, so he won’t have to give up his county seat to run for the state Senate.

The 41st Senate District comprises all of Dutchess County, except Beekman and Pawling; and the Putnam County towns of Kent Phillipstown and Putnam Valley.

In addition to his unsuccessful candidacies for state Senate, Tyner ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly in 2002 and in a Democratic primary for Congress in 2012. He twice ran for the county Legislature in the 1990s before being elected in 2003.

Serino, R-Hyde Park, is serving her second two-year term in the Senate. Tyner criticized her as beholden to special interests.

“She’s not a bad person, she’s not an evil person, but she’s allowed herself to fall into special interests,” he said.

“People know I’m not in it for myself,” Tyner said. “Somebody needs to speak truth to power and to the power structure, and not just Republicans.”

Tyner called for a “living minimum wage” that would rise to $15 an hour by 2020 for companies employing 500 people or more; single-payer health care in New York state; a tax system that would reduce the burden of school taxes on property owners; and the legalization of small amounts of recreational marijuana for adults.

Tyner conceded he might be seen as a bit of an underdog but said he has widespread name recognition and support across the region.

And he said he is in the best position to bring about change “because I’m not afraid to fail.”

“I’m not afraid to keep proposing idea after idea after idea because I’m not afraid to fail, and I know as some point people are going to realize they are good ideas,” he said.

About the Author

Since 1990, Patricia R. Doxsey has been a reporter for the Freeman, covering politics, crime, and government affairs. Reach the author at pdoxsey@freemanonline.com
or follow Patricia R. on Twitter: @pattiatfreeman.